Lois Ruble lived in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia from 1977 to 1999 working as a nurse for Saudi Aramco. She had the opportunity to work along side, treat and converse with Saudi women. She observed them within the Aramco company compound and came to understand how Saudi Women lived outside the compound with their families and within the Saudi community.
On February 16, 2006, Lois lead a discussion sponsored by the San Diego World Affairs Council on the lives of Saudi Arabian women. The following are her discussion talking points:
"Today, Saudi Arabia has universities in all the large cities as well as colleges and institutes in the main towns. Each university contains a separate faculty for female students. Many of the professors are female, PhD. graduates of Saudi, North American or European universities. Classes also may be taught by male professors via closed circuit TV with 2-way audio only.
Saudi Arabia has embraced development and modernization, but with the strong determination to maintain their traditional ways. One of these is the strict separation of men and women. The Wahhabi tradition has been unyielding on this. So women should only advance completely separated from men in every arena of life outside the family home. Hence the development of businesses and services both by and exclusively for women, such as these female-only branch banks.
Aramco, being an American company and somewhat a law unto itself, didn’t adhere to this separation. From the earliest days the company employed expatriate women, mainly as secretaries, teachers and nurses. By the time I arrived in Kingdom in the late 70’s, women were represented in most jobs that didn’t entail work out in the oil fields or on the rigs. At the same time, the first generation of educated Saudi girls was graduating from public school. So Aramco started hiring the daughters of Saudi employees, as well as their sons. They didn’t send these girls out for higher education as they did the young men, but would hire them into professional jobs if they already had degrees and qualifications.
At about the time I went to Arabia, the Saudi government decided to buy Aramco from the American “parent” companies; so developing and promoting Saudis, especially in management jobs, became a high priority.
The Nursing Department of the Aramco hospital had been trying to recruit Saudi nurses for many years, with scant success. Nursing wasn’t seen as a desirable occupation for a Saudi woman. There were colleges of nursing at Riyadh University and the University in Jeddah. We set up a summer program for nursing students. Several girls would come with a chaperone and spend eight weeks getting clinical experience. This program ran for three or four years and we managed to hire only two graduates. The father of one and the husband of the other already worked for Aramco.
It was easy to feel that we weren’t making any progress. However, one of the former summer students came back to visit several years later. She had graduated and was a director of nursing at a hospital in Jeddah. She told me that the summer she came to Aramco, her parents had been pressuring her to give up nursing, even though it was her dream. They just didn’t feel it was an appropriate job for a Saudi woman. Because of seeing us doing the professional work of nursing she went home and finished school. I know that this woman had great courage to continue against her parents’ wishes, because Saudi culture and Islam both emphasize obedience and honor to parents.
Some of our Saudi nurses dressed in an “Islamic” way, head and neck covered and wearing a loose, floor-length dress with long sleeves. But others wore Western-style pant suits and didn’t cover their hair. However they dressed at work or at home, whenever they went shopping in the local town they were obliged to wear the abaya, the black cloak, plus at least a headscarf.
I believe that slow but steady progress was being made toward bringing women into employment and other facets of life during the 1980’s. Then Iraq invaded Kuwait and everything came to a stop. Hundreds of thousands of foreign troops came to Arabia, including many female soldiers who drove military vehicles. Western media people swarmed over the country looking for stories to fill the hours of TV and the pages of newspapers. The “mysterious” Saudi woman attracted a lot of attention; progress for women slowed almost to a halt. Any advances happened quietly and without publicity.
Shortly after I moved to San Diego in 1999, there was an article in the Union-Tribune newspaper, in which Crown Prince Abdullah, now King Abdullah, said “The most important thing is that Saudi women should participate in the complete life of the society.” Abdullah became King in August of last year, and since then doors seem to be opening to women in many areas. Recently, the Foreign Ministry said it would appoint 36 women to positions, possibly including the first female ambassador. A 27 year old Saudi has become the first female pilot employed in the Kingdom. Prince al Waleed bin Talal hired her for his private fleet. Prince al Waleed is a major stockholder of Citibank, among many other major businesses, and is a grandson of the first King. In January of last year, the Labor Ministry announced plans to launch a campaign to find jobs for up to 200,000 women in “suitable”, and I suppose separate, occupations, such as receptionists, tailoring, secretaries and photographers. In an absolute first for the country, ten women were allowed to run for positions on the Board of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry – and two of them were elected! A woman was elected to the board of the nation-wide Saudi Engineers Council in December. And two days from now six women are vying for positions on the board of the Chamber of Commerce of the Eastern Province.
There is progress for women. It is slow and painful at times. Many Saudi women think progress is too slow. But women are speaking out now in public, on the Internet, and in newspapers.
At the same time there is always a backlash. In January, 2004, Lubna al Olayan, who heads a multi-billion dollar Saudi company, made a speech at the Jeddah Economic Forum. Men and women attended the forum, separated by a screen. During the speech Ms. Olayan’s headscarf slipped off her hair AND she left it off. She was warned of “grave consequences” by the religious authorities for her “shameful” behavior. Ms. Olayan was not been punished.
Recently Karen Hughes, President Bush’s Ambassador of Public Diplomacy, visited Saudi Arabia as part of a campaign to improve the US government’s image abroad. She met with Saudi women students at an elite college, telling them that she hoped they would soon be able to drive in order to fully participate in society. These women responded very negatively to her perceived criticism. They said they don’t find not being able to drive any hindrance, especially since most of these young women have chauffeurs. According to a news article, Ms. Hughes quote “seemed clearly taken aback as the women told her that just because they were not allowed to vote or drive that did not mean they were treated unfairly or imprisoned in their own homes.” So it seems our own government doesn’t know much about Saudi women either!
I’d like to finish by reading a short poem by Nimah Ismail Nawwab, a Saudi woman. She writes in English as well as Arabic and has recently published a book of her English poems. She works for Aramco and is the daughter of a scholarly family.
It’s titled Shrouded Mystery.
“Shrouded, cloaked in black,
figures of mystery.
Tales abound of their lives,
true or false, that is the question:
What does one do
with masked figures
while looking deep into the hidden folds?
Trying to decipher the looks in the black
fringed eyes:
what lives do they lead,
what choices do they have,
are their lives as secluded as they appear?”
Or are they full of personal successes,
of strong family ties,
unbreakable friendships,
of an unshakable faith?
Copyright 2003 Nimah Nawwab